As we all know in the gulf the top 3 leaders Qatar , Emirates and Etihad always Have always been in top spot.
In Low cost carrier’s(Middle East) Air Arabia & Fly Dubai Have been the highlight.
But today let’s talk about two Such carriers who have not been highlighted much lately Gulf Air & Oman Air.
Both are relatively small operating airlines whose hubs are both based in middle East.
They have a fleet of not more than 40 aircrafts including these year deliveries.
Let’s go a bit back to understand the full thing
Let’s start with Gulf Air,
This is one of the oldest Carriers of the middle East, commonly all the GCC states had a commoner airline called the “Gulf Air”
Retro Gulf Air A320
All the 7 states of the GCC had a stakeholdinf in this airline but as years passed by everyone state got busy in creating their own national airline.
And finally on 13 September 2005 , Gulf Air became the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain🇧🇭.
on 1 April 2007. A few days later, Dosé announced a BD310 million (USD825 million) restructuring plan.
Unfortunately this plan never succeeded and ultimately brought the airline to a breaking point.
With multiple changes happening in the airline & finally from 2009 proper restructuring plan was put together and the airline began earning some money but was still in loss and this loss was entirely beared by the government.
To date I must say the airline’s has been doing preety well and with the change in CEO to Krešimir Kučko, who has uplifted the airline and fleet modernization is in progress as I speak.
Brand new B787-9
Let’s get back to Oman Air
In 1993 Oman Air was offically founded. They started of with a wet leased 737 and slowly grew on by taking another wet leasure of two A320.
The major developments happened around 2000s. Around 2005 Oman Air had confirmed that they had had placed an order of 5x A330.
The airline practically never ran in loss but was slow in capturing the market.
Oman Air Retro livery on the 737
As of latest the airline has been performing amazingly well and it has placed a brand new order recently for the 737 Max 8 and B787-9 Dreamliners.
These aircrafts perfectly fit in for the expansion purpose to Asia and Europe.
Brand new 737 Max 8
Comparison:
Both the airline have been doing good lately and both the carrier’s have an expansion or a restructuring plan in progress .
People have not heard much about them as a result they remain in the darker side .
Sometimes I feel sometimes these carriers perform amazingly well compared to the top leaders in the Middle East.
My personal Opinion
I believe both these airlines have a potential to come in the top spot outrunning the all time top 3 leaders.
They might be small but have a large customer potential.
I feel Oman Air slightly has upper side than Gulf Air.
What do you think about these both carries? Will they ever make it to the top?
Comment down ⤵️
Image Credit : Wikimedia